


A Curious Game of Flats

by Golden_Solidus



Category: Tipping the Velvet (TV), Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
Genre: Closeted Character, F/F, Prose Poem, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 08:12:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16615202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golden_Solidus/pseuds/Golden_Solidus
Summary: Set during their time together on the London stage. Nan's tired of Kitty's games.





	A Curious Game of Flats

You might spurn the label with every ounce  
but you are fooling no one besides yourself.  
They all see us swaggering under the stage lights  
Two queer fish, Miss Mermaid and her consort.

For even for theater folk, two mashers together…  
Not one, but two girls with shorn hair in boaters…  
Suddenly, what seemed harmlessly amusing in one  
becomes perturbingly obvious in our pairing.

The drunkards of Deacon aren’t the only witnesses.  
The glint in Tony’s eye, the purse of Alice’ lips…  
the winking ladies, the blush on Walter’s cheek…  
You’re so meek and priggish and hushed that I choke  
on the word that I know to be true, catching on my tongue.

Toms. Toms! Not a curse, darling, but sheer and utter relief  
to have a name for what has remained silently unnamed  
to know there are kindred spirits in such fierce dreamings  
as our dance of illusions, so brazen on stage, whispering  
in the shadows, denying until we could bear it no longer.

Oh Kitty, I would shout your name from every chimney  
And buss your cheek and call you mine ‘fore all of London  
Yet you cower and tremble at the mere thought of anyone  
even suspecting the queer appetites that press you to me  
skin to skin, pearl to lips, heart to heart, night after night.


End file.
